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“Stand aside!!” Daniel shouts dashing past the three stunned werewolves with his golden sword raised over his red-head. Lucien snarls a warning as the young squires weapon cleaves through one length of chain, then another, the links popping like overly ripe chestnuts over a blaze about the dungeon. Dominick crouches down to spring at the door when the dank room glows with white, Joshua appearing in his armor. Soft white plate that shimmers in the torchlight, the squires centuries of meticulous care evident in the pristine appearance of the Knight Templars battle-gear. Sharp green eyes fall to the gold wolfs condition then rake over the rest as the upper chambers are rapidly emptied, the Pontiff being shuttled secretly to a safe location.

“Where is Gabrielle?” Joshua asks through his open helm. Ice cold blue eyes latch onto the Vanguard as Dominick sags back to his haunches, shifting to human form.”Answer me Kane!”“Gone!” Dominick growls swiping wildly at Porsche and Glaveryn as they step to the nude man kneeling in the straw.“Gone? Tell me not the beast has her?!”

“My liege! Kane is injured. May I bring the Wiccan to tend his wounds?” Daniel asks and receives the barest of nods.“I do not require her balms! What the hell has taken Gabrielle!?” Dominick demands taking the breeches offered to him by Lucien, his arm torn near to the bone he pushes the older were-male aside as he clothes himself in angry jerking motions.

In a blur Joshua finds himself against the seeping damp stone wall with a clatter of armor when Dominick pounces across the room in one unseen leap, his thick forearm across the Vanguards neck.”What the hell has my One!??!”

The others gasp at the scene, Lucien and Porsche dashing up to try to pull their Alpha from a sure death when an ivory gauntlet rises stemming them.“A nephilim” Joshua informs the snarling man, bloody death seeping from each thundering breath out of the lycanthrope.“A what?” Dom inquires ignoring the flash of the squire and the witch off to his right. “What the hell is that?! Tell me Vanguard or so help me I shall rip out your bloody throat!!”“What's going on?!?!” Sarah shouts once then she finds the one she seeks missing.”Wheres Gabby?”she asks with a small tremble in her voice.

“The offspring of a fallen angel” Joshua states, the loathing rich in his clipped tone and fevered look.”I had the pleasure of finding Father Aspere or what was left of him after his 'charge' returned to him. Your bite Kane, its affected the sacrilege somehow.”“You're talking in riddles Vanguard!” Glaveryn hisses at Joshua her brogue deepening with anxiety. “Niphilim are mere legend! How could Kane's bite....”

“As are witches and werewolves?”Joshua counters quickly then with a great shove removes the corded arm from his throat.”Unknown to but a few the Church has been using these, these, defamations to remove the demon races. Aspere`s scribe and underling revealed all when he entered the 'Keepers' quarters on my heels.”

“WHERE`S GABBY!?!?!” Sarah screams in panic, a cloth bag wound tightly into her small fist.“We do not know Sarah” Joshua tells her gently. Her face falls into one of horror and her bag of medicinal herbs and salves drops to the straw, Dominick's roar of fury and pain hiding the thud of the journal stashed inside with the bee-balm and wild rosemary.

“How do we find out where this THING has taken Gabriella?” Porsche snaps at Joshua. His silence pulls a mewl from Sarah and Daniel bolsters her arm.“I know a way” Sarah whispers out.”Dominick, some hair. NOW!” she jerks her chin up and swipes the back of her hand under her glasses as she holds out an open palm.

“You intend to do black magic in this place?” Daniel draws back a step with shock.“This womans powers can bring little darker than what our own priests have. Proceed Sarah” Joshua tells her gruffly. Dominick obliges the witch, tugging at his hair and dropping the strands into her damp palm.

She drops to her knees in the underbelly of the Vatican and tugs small pouches from her cloth bag. A touch of her finger into one and a rectangle slowly forms on the stone floor in charcoal. Another pouch dumped into the rectangle, ground clover and rose petals, then the mans golden hair falls within the charcoal lines. A small blunt white candle that Lucien lights from the torch is settled in the middle of the rectangle.

“Now you must invoke this spell Dominick. As the one seeking the Goddess for the door your love for my daughter is the longing” Sarah rises from her knees and stands beside Dom, whispering the words to him on her toes.

“I Dominick Kane standing still, uttering a blessing. I go from the room to the door, from the courtyard to the gates. I go out into the field on the Eastern side. On the Eastern side stands a cottage. In the middle of the cottage lies a door in the floor. Under the door is longing. The longing weeps. Longing sobs waiting to get to the white light. To rejoice in the light of eternal love I step into the door and it brings me to my longing.”

He falls back on bare feet as the rectangle flares to light. Soft mutterings from the squire as Kane peers down into the open door in the floor, its soft illumination showing him a circular stairwell as he looks downward.“Step into the door Kane. Go find my daughter” Sarah rests her hand on his forearm, the touch tender where he had been willing to loose a limb for her child.“I shall go with you Kane” Joshua comments tugging a withering glare from the werewolf.”It was I who swore Gabrielle into the Churches service, and thusly into the deceit that placed her in peril. My fealty is pledged to her service.”“So be it Vanguard” Dominick mutters before taking the step into the magicked portal at his feet.

*~~~~~*

The 'Nubble' ( A small rocky island off Cape Heddick Maine )

The re-apparition lands them on the small island that houses the 'Nubble' lighthouse, a steady pulsing glow of red landing on her captor as he shifts quickly back to whatever the hell it is he is.“Tell me you know Revelations Van Helsing” Malachi growls down at her still tight in his embrace.

“Like, you finally revealed yourself and you're a jerk-wad? Or the other Revelations?” she just manages to taunt when he hurls her at the 41 foot tower with a roar of anger. The impact into the brick-lined cast iron tower knocks the air from her and she lands on her stomach wheezing for a taste of the salt-water rich oxygen. Before she can manage to lift her chestnut hair from the gravel surrounding the lighthouse the nephilim is on her again. One powerful hand to the back of her head and Malachi hoists her from her stomach by her hair to slam her slim back into the white side of the Nubble.

“Do not toy with me 'exalted one' or you'll not live long enough to appease Abaddon” he rumbles in her face, his eyes as red as the warning beacon that moves steadily around in its circle above them.”Revelations 13:1. NOW!!!”the creature shouts, his breath rich with hatred mixed with pestilence and copper as it blasts across her face.

“Fine!” Gabby spits at his contorted face.”Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. And on his horns were ten crowns and on his heads, blasphemous names!” she kicks out at the son of one of the fallen.

“So the bastard whelping of Gideon and a witch DID learn the words. Tell me Van Helsing was your Wiccan mother the woman who rode the beasts back? Was she adorned in purple and scarlet and in her hand did she hold the golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication?”

“No you asshole that was Babylon!” Gabrielle hisses striking out with Gideon's dagger in a short arc that drags the Templar blade deep across the tendons of Malachi's right wrist. His bellow of pain reverberates off the rocky islands cliffs, his grip on her loosens and she drops to her feet. Wild loose hair whips around as she pivots, her vision locked in tightly as the twin blades slash across his bare back.

He drops down to all fours, the wolf again and pounces at her. Gabby braces and spins the daggers outward hoping to pierce this things heart with both weapons but he moves like the ocean wind, a blur as the scarlet torch revolves and her legs are taken out from under her. Down she goes to her back on the stony ground with a loud huff, one tasseled blade bouncing from her hand across the flat Maine rock.

He leaps-she brings her legs up, her knees catching the snarling wolf in its wide ribcage. His immense weight buckles her legs down to her chest, large snapping jowls attempt to find her delicate throat but her lone blade finds his first. Gabrielle slams the dagger into the side of Malachi's neck to the hilt and his reaction is rapid and boisterous.

As he works at trying to remove her knife Gabby gets to her feet panting rapidly and dives for the lost Templar dagger, her small hand getting the smooth handle to her palm as the beast explodes in wrath behind her. Her feet scrabble and slip on the damp rock as she hurries to right herself. Another blast of outrage and pain roars across the small island and Gabrielle plants herself down low in a crouch, up on the balls of her feet watching him flash into human form to tug the crimson-covered weapon from his thick neck through a bramble of chestnut hair.

“Come on!!” she shouts out as a wall of sea-water buffets the island, the white spray dousing the man bleeding and nude in a blink of vermilion light. A squeal that cuts through the surf to their left pulls her eyes from her adversary for a second, her 'senses' so loud now she can barely hear the oceans roar when the lone light-keeper steps out from the tower.

“NO!! Go back inside!!” Gabby shouts as the man wavers in the door-frame. She breaks for the tower as the monster does, her gait nowhere near fast enough to beat him, his flash of white light blinding her for a second as she charges on. A horrid scream comes from the man she had only glimpsed in silhouette as the hybrid literally rips the poor man asunder, then drops his head to feast on the blood still pumping from the jagged jugular.

“Bastard!” Gabby hisses leaping as she nears the grisly scene to slam all her slight weight into the downward blow with Gideon's blade. The nephilim gurgles, its mouth spilling fresh blood as its head spins to spy her in mid-air. Faster than she would have imagined, or known had she read that damned journal instead of falling for a gold-pelted hunk-a-wolf the creature lashes out one huge arm that catches her in her abdomen then propels her through the gaping door. Her head and back are hammered into the steps that curl up in a neat spiral to the light-room making her vision explode into white and black fireworks vying for attention.

Something jerks her up, something makes her slip around to her belly and begin to try to climb higher. Perhaps its the sound of the feast and the carnage of an innocent. Perhaps its the low, thundering rumble that accompanies the sound of bones popping as something happens to the thing. Perhaps its the warm, rich European mans tone in her ringing head that urges her to escape. But as she grimaces and tries to give herself time to think and rest she chances a fast look back. Oh hell she mumbles to herself. SO not good!

Her dark eyes grow round as she sees him increasing in size, growing with bones shattering and his body convulsing, Malachi grows. Wider. Taller. A giant half-breed that now pins her with hatred puddling from his red eyes. She forces herself to her feet and climbs, hand over hand, the Templar blade ringing loudly in the tower as it hits the polished metal rail. Gabby hears the frame of the door crumble, Malachi's girth to big to squeeze through he busts a wider passage to get to her.

Hurry! Hurry!! She stumbles a bit, then drags herself upwards, the iron under the bricks groans loudly as he pushes through. A wind blows in the wide opening she can feel as she catches the slow steady sound of his bare feet climbing one step then another. Coming behind her.

“You are out of places to hide Van Helsing” she hears keeping her screaming mind on climbing, the clatter of her blade as he drops it down the rounded circle in the center of the steps making her wince.”You have one dagger left. Do you not wonder why your blessed blades do not fell me daughter of the fornicators? I am half-angel, half-human.....”

“And part wolf so you're just all kinds of inbred aren't you Cletis?” Gabrielle grunts then wonders what possesses her to run her mouth? Because he sounded REALLY pissed now if that bellow of anger were any indication. Two hands find her shoulders, huge they are now covering her upper back completely he tugs her up roughly over his head as if she were no more than a leaf caught on the stairwell, a trifling thing blown in on a crisp fall day, his bulging arms hoist her higher overhead.

“You cannot kill me Van Helsing!” he spits her vile name out,”The Templar blades cannot drop one of heavenly blood!”“Stupid fine print!” she grinds out through clenched teeth wrenching some in his grip Gabby snarls as her blade travels down in a streak, the serrated edge lacerating his eyes. Hellfire erupts from him in long vile streams of profanity, her writhing frame whipped over the railing as Malachi totters backwards, his fingers clasped over his eyes. Neither in the tower witness the glowing portal opening above them. She too busy screaming as she plummets, he blinded by the Templar dagger.

'Save yourself !' Gabrielle hears through the screaming shriek of panic as she hurtles downward, the deep male voice ricochets around her mind for a brief second then its gone. She follows the instruction best she can, bending herself into a small arc mid-air. Her hand slaps onto the burnished railing with the grace of God and her body whips downward with speed driving her chest soundly into the lighthouses rail.

Well heck yes this is SO much better she grunts hanging by one damp hand looking down at a thirty foot drop that Halle Berry in that sexy black cat-suit could maybe make, with wires attached to her of course. She was a huge star after all and wouldn't risk her beautiful life fighting a wolf-angel-mutate thing now would she?? Hell no. Not without CGI and a large amount of money for make-up. FOCUS Gabby she scolds herself firmly.

Malachi's roars reverberate around her as she feverishly tries to keep her thoughts on the battle and the fact that if she drops her lone dagger to get both hands to the rail pestilence-breath up there would have her completely at his mercy. Not that hanging by a lone hand didn't put her in a very similar situation mind. Her sweaty brow wrinkles for a moment then she closes her eyes and releases the Templar blade. Bye-bye means of self-defense she laments as her fingers come loose from the rail. Quickly she snakes a firm hold with TWO, count `em TWO hands, to the support rails under the smooth banister.

“Gabrielle!” she hears as she's working on trying to get a small foot up high enough to pull herself up before IT gets done yelling and decides to come over to pay her back for the small case of eye irritation. “PROF! A hand here?!” she shouts out as her heel streaks off the metal once again. She groans out at the pull of her arm muscles when his large hands clamp onto her wrists through the ten inch openings in the iron-work. She peeks up, her hair stuck to her glistening face to see his frantic arctic gaze riveted to her.”About time!” she spits making her hair spurt out.

“You're really in no position to criticize about tardiness Miss Devon!” Dominick comments, kneeling on the cold steps in borrowed breeches. The heated curse from Malachi tugs his head around as he holds his One tightly. The sight one he knows should he roam this Earth for another thousand years he would never see again. Praise be to the Queen.

Malachi, his contorted face smeared with a mix of his blood and the elderly light-keepers, lashing out with both hands to grip the golden sword that has speared deeply into his massive chest. Howls of utter agony cascade about and about as Joshua plants both palms to the hilt of his weapon and pushes the blade clean through and into the circular wall of the Nubble.“Hey! Yoo-Hoo! Hello!? Woman needs wolf-man to pay attention to her here!!”

“Sorry” Dominick remarks turning his attention back to the slight thing with her petite feet dangling freely. After a bit of finagling his thick arms are hoisting her slim form over the rail and directly into a crushing embrace. Her breath is forced from her but she finds the feel of his bare skin next to her over-rides the need to breath. For a short-time anyway. She clings to him for dear life, his warm breath fanning her chestnut hair. Then a sound fills the stair-well, a sound unlike any she has ever heard in her whole eighteen years. It rakes across her spine, it makes the huge man holding her cry out softly at the assault on his ears.

Both turn instantly to watch the nephilim still skewered on the Vanguards heavy sword begin to lurch about. Malachi's bright blue eyes peer intently into the small slits in Joshua's helm.“Please” it coughs out, rich foaming blood leaking from the corner of the once violent mouth,”Please....Viaticum.”

Joshua stares at the creature he had called 'Brother' for centuries with a flare of pity. For this thing, this off-spring of a fallen was no more to blame for its circumstances than he was. They had both been lied to by the Church. Used and manipulated.“I am no priest” he gently states .”I have no oil or....”“Matters....not” he hacks up more scarlet fluid”Rather knight....than priest. Hear my....final confession....”

Gabby stays wrapped in Dominick's arms as the Knight Templar nods once then with a mighty lurch frees the dying soul from his sword. The golden blade crashes to the steps as Joshua moves quickly to catch the man as he collapses.

“My brother....I have sinned... against God...” a whispered confession follows amid soft sounds of death coming. Joshua tugs his helmet off with a jerk, his knees solid to the steps as he cradles the nephilim gently, each hoarse cough spattering his pristine armor. Dominick keeps Gabrielle close as the Knight whispers the Apostles creed along with the beast. Her whole body is trembling he feels as they witness a rite that guarantees nothing since they lacked a good father. But as the last words come softly to them wound about each other the were-wolf knows this is more for peace of spirit for the wretched soul than anything else. For would any of them be granted admission when their time came?

“May the Lord Jesus protect you and lead you to eternal life” Joshua prays quietly his white head bowed as the last breath leaves the Church's warrior in his arms. The three remain as they are with the sounds of the surf outside and the steady hum of the light moving in its never-ending warning above them. None willing to speak it seemed, the two needing more the heat of each other. Joshua then lays Malachi down softly, taking the time to close the blue eyes that have at last found peace. He rises and turns his head slightly to view the girl staring at him openly. Gideon's gaze questioning as the werewolf strokes her back, his piercing eyes on the Templar Knight also.

“Gabrielle, I am sorry” he states roughly then with a flash that makes the were-male and the Van Helsing blink, he's gone. His soft ivory helm resting next to the golden sword beside the cooling remains of heaven and hell combined.

*~~~~~~*

One month later

Jacob's Mill

Divinity, Maine

“Autumn is over the long leaves that love usAnd over the mice in the barley sheaves;Yellow the leaves of the rowan above usAnd yellow the wet-wild strawberry leaves.

The hour of the waning of love has beset usAnd weary and worn are our sad souls now;Let us patt, `ere the season of passion forget usWith a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.”

Dominick mutters softly placing a soft kiss to the drooping brow of his One as she lays beside him. Her hand strokes over his bare chest absently, her skin heated still from their love-making here in their bower. The bed of the El Camino covered with old blankets and atop their nude forms a thick sleeping bag.

“So am I going to have to hear Yeats every time we bump and grind?” she asks running her flat palm over his abdomen, her moist breath warm across his powerful chest.“It was the only poem that came to mind with a fall theme” he comments, resting his head on his thick forearm under the mane of russet and gold. They came here often of late, forcing the El to bounce and troddle over the rough land. His sharp eyes watch a red maple leaf waft upward, caught in a whirlwind of the autumn breezes.“Mmm. Well maybe I need to make you pay attention to me and not the leaves drifting down.”“Perhaps” he taunts jerking at the touch of her soft hand to his thigh. They fall into silence again for a time then she speaks out quietly.

“I wonder where Joshua went.”“Nothing from him yet then?” he asks admiring the sun as it peeks through the canopy of red and yellow and gold above to light her dark hair in moving glorious patterns of light. Her head shakes slightly on his chest. “He needs time Gabrielle” Dom reminds her again.”The poor blokes whole world, hell his whole bloody existence shattered down around him! Its no wonder he needs time to get his bearings.”“He gave up everything for the Church. And for what?” she asks not really expecting a reply for there was none to give. They had discussed the events over and over since that fateful night. There were no answers she knows, but still....she missed him. He had been a father to her in many ways and now that she had left the Church and its deceitfulness to work on her own she had no way of getting any information on her mentor.

“So tell me of Porsche” she changes the subject to one less painful. But just a hair less.“She seems to be settling in nicely” Dominick replies gruffly. This was a major sore spot for him. One he and Lucien had argued time and again with Porsche and yet the stubborn chit insisted she fulfill her duty to the Clan. Her Clan.

“You miss her too don't you?”His chest gathers a deep breath under her cheek and she tilts her head some to peer up at him. He needed a shave. Do werewolves grow hair faster than normal men? “Horribly” he admits as a oak leaf drifts languidly down to rest on the red and black sleeping bag that hides her bare back.

“She had to do what she felt was right Prof” Gabby reminds him now. “Who knows, maybe when she finds this Sylvain they'll fall madly in love! Its possible you know for enemies to bridge a gap like that” her tone slips into playfulness as her fingers wrap around him. The mighty wolf grunts out a warning about her dainty fingers and toying with a hungry wolf.”Hungry? You should be pretty full buddy!” she purrs stroking him gently under the quilted bag.

“Thats where you make your mistake Van Helsing!” he growls deeply rolling her to her back in a flash.”Wolves are never satisfied my One” he slips easily between her toned thighs, his mouth moving in sharp nips over her exposed neck.” Tell me you love me Gabrielle” he entreats as he enters her.“I love you” she sighs locking her legs around his hips, her arms around his thick, muscular shoulders.”Even if you require a flea dip monthly” she giggles then arches her back with a mewl to allow him to love her more. Love her like no other ever could. Love her as his One.

*~~~~*

Sarah sighs a weary sigh as she tugs the healing herbs from her garden. Winters first touch had fallen last night, the plants drooping with the heavy frost that had covered the grass. She always hated this time of year. The nights were long and cold and so very lonely.

“Excuse me Wiccan but would you have a balm to mend a broken soul?”

She smiles a wee bit and turns on her denim-clad knees to look back at the man behind her. She had never seen him out of his Templar garb, but now he stood in her small yard in jeans and a well-worn jacket. She pushes her soft-blue glasses up her nose as she regards him seriously for a moment. He was so very alone too his green eyes said.

“Sadly souls are out of my realm Templar. But I can warm some cider if you'd like?”“I should enjoy that Sarah.”